Dhoni and Ganguly are the most successful captains of Indian cricket, who took the Indian team to achieve enormous new heights in the world. Whenever we talk about captaincy, these two names pop up in every Indian cricket fan.
Dhoni definitely holds an upper hand against Ganguly in terms of captaincy records. Since Dhoni is the only captain to win all the ICC trophies during his stint. But who would have seen MS Dhoni, if those words by Ganguly to selectors- “Let’s try Dhoni” weren’t said by him in the first place. Ganguly didn’t only try Dhoni but backed his instinct to ensure Dhoni had numerous chances to prove his worth at the international level.
On the other hand, Ganguly is the man who brought the smooth transition to the Indian team who was on a down road after the match-fixing allegations in 2000. He believed in young players and somehow managed to bring the best out of them.
Let’s compare Dhoni & Ganguly’s Captaincy Stats
ODI Captaincy
Dhoni can be termed as a better captain than Ganguly in the ODI format of the game. The former had around 60% win percentage in the format, whereas Ganguly had close to 54%. Though the difference is not marginally high, Dhoni leads the way when the situation boils down to knockout games.
Dhoni who has captained India in 16 knockout games did a mind-blowing job by winning 11 out of them. That’s a 70% win. On the other hand, Ganguly had merely 5 wins in 17 games which rounds the figures to a 30% win rate.
Test Captaincy
Yes, India did become the number 1 test ranked team under Dhoni’s leadership but the seeds were well sown by Ganguly. In the game’s longest format, Ganguly was simply the finest Indian captain against SENA countries ( South Africa, England, New Zealand & Australia).
Every Indian fan does know that winning on home soil isn’t a big deal. That’s the reason we take into account the loss percentage of Dhoni & Ganguly in SENA countries. No wonder, Ganguly wins this battle without any close margin. Although, team India didn’t win matches under Ganguly but certainly they showed fighting spirit against numerous odds to settle for a draw. 38% & 61% loss ratio of Ganguly & Dhoni respectively depict their captaincy style.
Dhoni & Ganguly are like the two opposite captains. The one was as calm as ice under any situation whereas the other one was aggressive in his approach. Yet, the numbers cannot depict the aura and legacy of these two captains. Ganguly did have numbers in limited-overs which doesn’t depict him as a strong captain but don’t forget the fact that Harbhajan, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh & Dhoni all made their debut under him and were inexperienced to handle critical match situations during Ganguly’s time.
Undoubtedly, it wouldn’t be justice if we take into consideration only the numbers and statistics without considering the other major aspects. But yes, if a conclusion has to be made through these numbers then Ganguly can be termed as a better test captain and Dhoni a better-limited overs captain.
However, we should focus more on the legacy left behind by them and the contribution these two legends made to Indian cricket.